Hate the Phillies All You Want...Just Don't Disrespect Our Fans and City

The Phillies clinched the Pennant! The Phillies clinched the Pennant! I could say this phrase for a week straight, and I still wouldn't get sick of it.

When Carlos Ruiz made that final squeeze in the bottom of the ninth for the final out in Game Five, tears of joy came to my eyes.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has suffered heartbreak, season after season after season. This recent feeling is amazing

Enjoy this moment Philly fans. For the first time in 15 years, the Philadelphia Phillies have won the Pennant and are heading back to the World Series.

Even though I go to school at the University of Dayton, I still enjoy catching up on my news stories back home in Philadelphia.

When I was browsing my hometown's news station website, NBC10, there was a web link to an article that had been written in the LA Times about the Phillies and Dodgers series. However, this wasn't your typical article you see in Sports Illustrated or ESPN The Magazine.

Not only did this writer give his thoughts about the upcoming Phillies-Dodgers series, but he decided to be disrespectful to the actual city of Philadelphia and their fans.

I can understand when fans of other teams talk negative about other teams. It's all part of the fun of competition.

This article was the total opposite of that. For the sake of being mature, I will not mention the writer's name. But take a look at the first few paragraphs of the article from Oct. 8 in the LA Times:

You spend any time in this dingy city and around these folks, and pit bulls running wild come to mind.

Fine when leashed, but set them free, put a beer in their grubby paws and it's only a matter of time before they're going to go on the attack -- both the home team and its opponent feeling the bite.

It's an angry place, all right, everything old here in Philadelphia, crumbling and in ruin. Even the city's main attraction has a crack in it.

So the prevailing opinion around here is you have to be an obstinate pug to make it in Philly, the football team tough, the hockey team a bunch of bullies and the Phillies rugged competitors like Larry Bowa.

This is supposed to make Philly an intimidating place to play, Bowa telling the media Wednesday that if the Dodgers thought Chicago was bad, "they're going to be in for a rude awakening" playing here.

"It was like a West Coast crowd in Chicago," said Bowa, the Philly in him unable to keep himself from slapping Dodgers fans, and apparently discounting the manner in which Nancy Bea Hefley can whip a Dodgers crowd into a frenzy.

But if a Philly crowd is so intimidating, as Bowa suggests, why do the Phillies lose here so often? A year ago, the Phillies became the first pro sports franchise in North American history to lose 10,000 games.

Philly has always been more bark than championship bite, so why should the Dodgers give a hoot about folks who paint their faces and then have to drive home looking like sad clowns?

The Dodgers have the better team, a destiny date in Boston, and while that might make the folks in Philly miserable, they don't know how to act any differently here.

Funny thing, too, this series will probably come back here for Games 6 and 7, and nothing more disappointing than getting that close to a World Series only to trudge out of the stadium wondering what went wrong.

Wow. Is this guy for real? You're going to disrespect the Liberty Bell? Why doesn't he just disrespect the Statue of Liberty while he's at it.

Sad clowns? Is he really going to make fun of us for painting our faces? If I recall, I am pretty sure I saw a ton of Dodger fans who had their faces painted at last night's game. I even saw some fans with braided hair wigs to look like Manny Ramirez.

If anything, I respect the fact that fans go all out to cheer their team on. It shows your passion and desire for how much you want your team to come out with a victory.

I will admit, Philadelphia fans are brutal. They are some of the most intense fans you will see in any sports. Sometimes they will take things too far, but that's what makes them so great. Philadelphia fans aren't afraid to show how passionate they are about their teams.

The city has been waiting for a championship ever since the Sixers won the NBA Finals in 1983. That's 25 years the city has gone without a championship. No matter what though, fans have always been there to support the teams.

If you want to hate our team, be my guest. You have every right in the world to hate on the teams. I wasn't a fan of the Dodgers. I wanted them to lose. I hated it every time Manny Ramirez came to the plate and hit one out of the ball park.

Am I going to sit here and make negative comments about Dodger fans? Of course not. I know nothing about Dodger fans. If anything, I respect their passion toward their team. They wanted the Dodgers to go to the World  Series just as much as I wanted the Phillies.

I was happy that the Phillies were able to knock out the Dodgers to advance to the World Series. I was even happier that every prediction this guy made in his article came out wrong.

The Dodgers have the better team? The Dodgers are a great team, don't get me wrong. But the Phillies were clearly the better team in this series. You can say whatever you want about Philadelphia teams. You can hate us because we're in the same division. You can hate us because we got in your way from a World Series birth.

Just don't hate on the fans or the actual city of Philadelphia. We do the same thing that fans across the country do. All we do is cheer for the team we love in the city we love. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.